One defendant in Longmont stabbing spared murder charge

A judge ruled Monday evening that three of the four defendants in the murder of a 19-year-old Longmont man would have their cases proceed on the original charges brought against them by prosecutors.

Lakesha Crutcher, 20, was spared the second-degree murder charge that she faced and will go forward on an accessory to murder charge only, according to Boulder County Judge Carolyn Hoye Enichen's ruling.

The judge found there was probable cause to bind over Raymond Palomino, 26, for trial on a second-degree murder charge and possession of a controlled substance charge.

He is believed by prosecutors to be the person who stabbed Logan Sisson at a Longmont Park on April 20.

Mariena Harris, 19, will move forward on a second-degree murder charge and an accessory to second-degree murder charge, while the judge found probable cause to have 36-year-old Robert Wittmer proceed on an accessory to second-degree murder charge and a charge of possessing incendiary devices.

The judge's rulings came at the end of an all-day preliminary hearing that went deep into after-hours at the Boulder County Justice Center.

Harris' attorney, Matt Connell, tried to spare his client the more severe murder charge by arguing that the police believe Palomino was the stabber, not Harris. But Enichen said the fact that Harris had admitted to two people that she stabbed Sisson -- even if she was trying to cover for her boyfriend, Palomino -- meant there was probable cause to pursue the second-degree murder charge against her.

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Wittmer's attorney, Gregg Friedman, said the mere fact that his client didn't tell police about what he knew concerning Palomino's alleged admitted role in the stabbing doesn't make him an accessory to the crime.

He said Wittmer has a constitutional right not to talk to the police.

But the judge said Wittmer didn't just stay silent, but tried to deceive police about where he was and with whom he was that evening and thus effectively hindered the investigation into the homicide.

The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned over a range of dates in August and September.

UPDATE: 3:56 p.m.

Mariena Harris and Lakesha Crutcher, accused of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Logan Sisson in April, were actually targeted by Sisson for robbery the night he was killed, a defense attorney asserted Monday afternoon.

Mark Johnson, attorney for the accused stabber Raymond Palomino, asked Longmont police detective Stacey Graham if Sisson's friend, Robert Lewis, had been asked by police whether he had formed a plan with Sisson to "jack" someone for drug and booze money the night of April 20.

"Did you ask Mr. Lewis why he hung around the park for 20 minutes after leaving the party?" Johnson asked, referring to witness accounts that Sisson had left a party near Lanyon Park 20 minutes before the two women did.

He said Sisson's and Lewis' intended robbery victims were Crutcher and Harris, who ended up in a confrontation with Sisson at Lanyon Park later that night.

Prosecutor Adrian Van Nice objected and said any assertions of self-defense were not relevant to a preliminary hearing.

Harris' attorney, Matt Connell, cross-examined Graham by asking her if Sisson and Lewis were essentially looking to get high and drunk on April 20 but didn't have any money.

She agreed that was true.

Graham acknowledged that Lewis and Sisson stole some alcohol from a liquor store and then burglarized an apartment that afternoon before getting to Terry McCary's home for a party.

Connell asked the detective if Sisson was drunk, spilling apple vodka on the floor and wiping it up with his shirt.

She agreed.

Graham also agreed that both Lewis and McCary had given false statements to police throughout the investigation.

"You have no evidence that Mariena Harris ever possessed a knife the night of April 20, correct?" Connell asked.

Graham said that was true.

She said police believe they still haven't recovered the murder weapon.

Crutcher's attorney, Curtis Ramsay, asked Graham if any knife was ever recovered from her client, despite the fact that a witness told police he saw the outline of a knife stashed in her bra.

The detective said no.

Ramsay asked Graham if Crutcher and Harris had injuries consistent with being attacked that night. Crutcher told police that she tried to help Harris as her friend was being choked by Sisson.

Graham said the women were injured.

During an afternoon break -- with the lawyers out of the room -- Harris could be seen making eye contact in court with Palomino, her boyfriend at the time of Sisson's death. At one point she audibly giggled, blushed and turned away as Palomino sat at a table about 10 feet away.

Harris and Crutcher, who is seated right behind Harris, also appeared to try and communicate with one another. A sheriff's deputy eventually admonished Crutcher and told her not to talk to her co-defendant.

Ramsay also told her client not to talk to Harris.

UPDATE: 12:36 p.m.

Testimony during Monday morning's preliminary hearing focused on what the four defendants told others in the wake of the stabbing death of 19-year-old Logan Sisson in Longmont on April 20.

Longmont police detective Stacey Graham testified that Raymond "Michael" Palomino told three other people that he had stabbed Sisson.

"Mr. Palomino said Mr. Sisson had died and that he had been the party that stabbed him," she said, attributing the statement to a friend of the defendant, Colin Strong.

She said Strong told police that Lakesha Crutcher said the knife used in the stabbing was tucked into her bra.

The detective testified that Terry Latham, a Longmont woman who loaned her car to Palomino, told police that Palomino had told her that he had "shanked" Sisson.

"She found it disturbing that he had no emotion about the stabbing," Graham said.

The detective said another friend of Palomino, Luther Lee, told police that he was driving Palomino across Longmont in the days following Sisson's death. Palomino became "hyper-vigilant" and "agitated" as he picked up local newspapers at gas stations they stopped at and read news accounts about the stabbing, Lee said.

Lee told police Palomino admitted it was he that had killed Sisson, Graham testified.

Graham also told the judge that Robert Lewis, Sisson's friend, told police that he had called 911 after he found his friend bleeding on the steps of a home near Lanyon Park in Longmont on April 20.

According to her testimony, Lewis said he heard Sisson fighting in the park with two women that evening and then saw a red Geo Tracker arrive, from which two men emerged.

He said he heard someone yell not to mess with his girlfriend and then a "loud thud." He said he saw two men and two women get into the vehicle and drive off, according to Graham.

"He described it as someone being hit very hard, probably in the torso area," Graham said of Lewis' description.

She testified that Lewis told police he had been at the home of Terry McCary, a woman who lives near Lanyon Park, with the four defendants and Sisson earlier that evening and that Sisson had gotten into a verbal altercation with Mariena Harris and Lakesha Crutcher.

McCary told police she asked Sisson to leave after he became verbally belligerent with Harris and Crutcher, Graham said.

When the two women told McCary they were going to the park to meet up with someone, she warned them not to start a fight with Sisson, Graham testified.

The detective told the judge that Harris told police she had been struck by Sisson and that Sisson had been swinging a bottle at both her and Crutcher.

She said Crutcher told authorities that Sisson had run towards Harris at Lanyon Park and that Harris had stabbed him.

The fourth defendant, Robert Wittmer, was arrested after police saw him leaving Harris' home in a red Geo Tracker the day after the stabbing, the detective told the court.

He denied being involved in any fight at the park, Graham said, telling police he had gone straight home from McCary's party that night.

Testimony will resume after lunch.

UPDATE: 10:43 a.m.

The four defendants accused of being involved in the fatal stabbing of a Longmont man in April are in court this morning for a preliminary hearing.

Lawyers for Raymond Palomino, 26; Mariena Harris, 19; Lakesha Crutcher, 20; and Robert Wittmer, 36, are questioning the forensic pathologist who examined the body of 19-year-old Logan Sisson, who was stabbed in Longmont's Lanyon Park on April 20. He died a few hours later.

Prosecutors say Palomino was the stabber and that his girlfriend, Harris, attempted to cover for him by implicating herself. They say the four defendants and Sisson were at a party together and an argument developed between the women and victim that later turned into a fight at the park.

Harris' lawyer, Matt Connell, began the hearing by asking that the judge drop a second-degree murder charge against his client, claiming she had no knowledge of the crime and took part in no planning it.

Harris, dressed in a yellow-and-white-striped jail suit from Adams County, looked out at the gallery and smiled nervously at a couple of her friends and relatives as she was brought into the courtroom.

The other three defendants are being held in Boulder County Jail and each was brought into the room separately.

Each defendant has separate counsel.

Dr. Kelly Lear-Kaul, a forensic pathologist with the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office, testified that Sisson had two knife wounds on his torso. One was a 4-inch deep stab wound that pierced his heart and the other was a 6-inch long incision on the right side of his lower chest.

"He had died of a stab wound to the chest," she said.

She testified that she could not tell Sisson's position in relation to the stabber or exactly what kind of knife was used. She also could not tell if different knives were used to make the separate wounds.

Lear-Kaul said she did not detect any signs of defensive wounds on Sisson's hands or arms.

She said he was intoxicated, with a blood-alcohol level of .186 percent.

I am really sorry for all the bad things I have said about Longmont in the past. Will all of you accept my apology?

NukeslnBoulder

7/13/2009 11:34:56 AM

Longmont.... again.

tunafishsandwich

7/13/2009 11:36:46 AM

Yea, Dr Hal. Nice one. where do you come up with your awesome one liners. You seem super smart.

BoulderBurnout

7/13/2009 11:57:42 AM

These dudes 'Went Boulder'. ... that's why they stabbed Sisson.

Yep, the bad attitude held in Boulder is spilling out onto the nice areas.

What they did is very Boulderish.

WolverineSmile

7/13/2009 1:08:59 PM

The faces of Longmont.

davey

7/13/2009 1:11:51 PM

I was thinking boulder's sign should be a naked hippie humping a prairie dog, jamming echinachae up their nose while kissing POTUS's backside...

chucklehead

7/13/2009 1:13:34 PM

" I was thinking boulder's sign should be a naked hippie humping a prairie dog, jamming echinachae up their nose while kissing POTUS's backside...:

Please, if there's room, add the Subaru with the "Free Tibet" and "Coexist" bumper stickers.

zone913inc@aol.com

7/13/2009 1:29:09 PM

Wow. Longmont. It just keeps getting better.

Seriously, what's going on out there?

KR

7/13/2009 1:41:02 PM

I think it's funny that all these Longmont people are worried about what everyone is saying about Longmont on a Boulder newspaper's website. Hahahahaha.... don't they have their own newspaper? One thing is for sure: they are very insecure, with a lot of time on their hands.

tunafishsandwich

7/13/2009 3:04:24 PM

Posted by nyctrak:

you dirtbags are just pissed cause you can't afford to live in Boulder,.. that's why you belong in "gangster wannabe", redneck, whitetrash Longtucky,.. keep your Longmont(Longtucky)trash out of Boulder,.. Boulder had nothin' to do with this crime,.. the only time that Boulder has ever had crimes like this,(ever)is when either Denver "wannabe thugs" or you Longmont(Longtucky)trash comes to our town,.. stay out dirtbags, and keep your redneck, "wannabe gangster thug", whitetrash mentality out of nature, animal lovin' town.....

peace(ha ha)............

nyctrash, you deluded baffoon, you all live in the same frontrange cesspool: the Bouldmont Metroplex. Flash: Boulder/Longmont=Bouldmont. You are all the same to the rest of Colorado.

TextualFavors

7/13/2009 10:31:53 PM

you dirtbags are just pissed cause you can't afford to live in Boulder,.. that's why you belong in "gangster wannabe", redneck, whitetrash Longtucky,.. keep your Longmont(Longtucky)trash out of Boulder,.. Boulder had nothin' to do with this crime,.. the only time that Boulder has ever had crimes like this,(ever)is when either Denver "wannabe thugs" or you Longmont(Longtucky)trash comes to our town,.. stay out dirtbags, and keep your redneck, "wannabe gangster thug", whitetrash mentality out of nature, animal lovin' town.....